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ASA's NCAA Football Championship Selection

by ASA - 08/16/2005

ASAâ€™s pick to win the 2005/06 National Championship is Texas at 10/1 odds. When predicting a potential National Championship winner before the season starts, scheduling is always a huge key. The Longhorns have their toughest stretch during the first five weeks of the season. Itâ€™s actually not that tough, just two games are very big (@ Ohio State on Sept. 10 & vs. Oklahoma on October 8). After that, the Horns can most likely put it on â€œcruise controlâ€쳌 until the final game of the season @ Texas A&M. Their game @ Ohio State will obviously be a very tough one. The Buckeyes are extremely good at home with a record of 57-9 straight up since the start of the 1995 season. However, OSU does have a lot of talent back, but remember they were just 4-4 in the Big Ten last year. Texas has just as many players returning and they were within a 12-0 loss vs. Oklahoma from playing USC for the National Championship. Thus this is a very winnable game for Texas. If they would lose at the Horseshoe, they still would have a great shot at playing in the Rose Bowl because the loss would be very early in the season. Moving forward, this should be the year that Texas finally steps up and beats Oklahoma. The Sooners have simply had UTâ€™s number as of late. In fact, OU has now won and covered five straight years. Just looking at the last four years, Texas is 0-4 vs. Oklahoma and an incredible 43-4 straight up vs. everyone else. With the Sooners losing a ton of players from last yearâ€™s team (only nine starters back), including QB Jason White. If they can get by those two games at 2-0 or even 1-1, the Horns have a chance at the Rose Bowl. After that they play host to Colorado, Texas Tech and Kansas while traveling to Oklahoma State (will be down this year), Baylor and Texas A&M. Looking at that slate, we would say that A&M might be their only other chance for a loss. Weâ€™re not even sure that is a potential loss as UT has owned the Aggies winning and covering 8 of the last 10 years. Of course, while scheduling is very important, there is obviously more to it than that. You have to have some serious talent and Texas does. It starts up front where they will have one of the best offensive and defensive lines in the country. They have two linemen on the offensive front and two on the defensive front that have a very good chance to be first round NFL selections. Nine starters are back from a defense that allowed just 317 total yards per game and just 16 PPG a year ago. They also have a new defensive coordinator in Gene Chizik who came over from Auburn after orchestrating the Tigers to the #1 scoring defense in the nation last year. QB Vince Young will be one of the most dangerous players in college football. He will operated behind a fantastic and experienced offensive line with four starters back. Overall, we really feel that Texas is the one team that could give USC a run for their money if they met up in the Rose Bowl. The Trojans are currently at even odds to win the National Title which is unheard of. Thatâ€™s why weâ€™ll jump on Texas at 10/1 to win it all.